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Since 2017 the French government has decided to work with B2G electronic invoicing requirements. As from July 2024 on the regulations for B2B and B2C started to change in order to have a regulation ready with e-Invoicing and e-Reporting requirements. In the next sections, we will briefly explain what the new requirements are and what SAP will offer in order to comply with them.
Recent update on penalties:
The government reaffirmed that the 1 September 2026 deadline remains unchanged
The tax administration announced that:
- Penalties for non-compliance will initially be applied with a degree of flexibility.
- The focus during the first months will be on helping businesses transition successfully rather than immediate strict enforcement.
When do companies need to comply with the e-Invoicing and e-Reporting regulations in France?
The French government has decided that every business with permanent residence in France and which has a VAT number in France, should be able to receive e-Invoices from 1 September 2026. This is not based on the size of the company. Sending e-Invoices or performing e-Reporting depends on the size of the company:
1. September 2026: Large businesses
- Annual turnover is bigger than 1,5 Billion Euros
- Balance sheet is higher than 2 Billion Euros
- The company employs more than 5000 employees
2. September 2026: Medium-sized businesses
- Annual turnover is between 50 Million Euros and 1,5 Billion Euros
- Balance sheet is between 43 Million Euros and 2 Billion Euros
- The company employs between 250 and 5000 employees
3. September 2027: small businesses
- Annual turnover is lower than 50 Million Euros
- Balance sheet is lower than 43 Million Euros
- The company employs between 10 and 250 employees
Companies that only sell supplies of goods or services with tax exemption such as specific insurance and banking services, medical and health services and educational services are exempt from the electronic invoicing and electronic reporting requirements. All companies with activities other than the ones previously mentioned, need to comply with the new electronic requirements.
When to apply with the e-Invoicing or e-Reporting regulations?
The e-Invoicing regulations apply when a B2B transaction is performed between two businesses with a French VAT number and a permanent residence in France. eReporting however will be applicable in the following scenario’s:
- Sales to private customers (B2C),
- International transactions (exports, intra-community supplies),
- Purchases from non-established foreign suppliers (subject to reverse charge),
- Payment reporting requirements: specifically for services where VAT is due upon collection (rather than debit), companies must report payment-related data, including collection dates and amounts (including VAT).
Process scenarios for e-Invoicing
The government or DGFiP (Direction Générale des Finances Publiques) decided to use two platforms which are connect to each other. One of them is the PA (Plateforme Agréée), former known as PDP (Plateforme de Dématerialisation Partenaire). This is a 3rd party, such as SAP, and it should be used before sending the document to the end customer and the PPF (Portail Public de Facturation).
The PA can transform the invoices into the required XML format and send it to the platform PPF (Portail Public de Facturation) or the Chorus Pro. The PPF is free to use, but it cannot convert the invoices to the needed XML. The PPF is then linked to the tax authorities. This may all seem complicated, although the scheme below will clear out most of the questions there might be. The French government has chosen for a Y-Model since at the same time the XML will be sent to the end customer and to the PPF.
In general the Y-Model for is represented as follows for e-Invoicing when using SAP:
- You post an invoice, debit memo, or credit memo in the SAP SD or SAP FI module. As soon as the invoice (including accounting document) is posted, the SAP system automatically creates an SAP eDocument for it in the database.
- When sending one or more e-invoices from the SAP eDocument Cockpit, the SAP eDocument is converted into the legally required XML format in the SAP system (via the SAP AIF interface) and forwarded to the SAP DRC, Cloud Edition solution.
- In parallel, SAP DRC, Cloud Edition forwards the XML file to both the PPF the customer’s PA platform.
- The PPF platform of the French DGFiP tax authorities validates the XML file and returns a status update to SAP, which is reflected in the SAP eDocument Cockpit.
- The Customer’s PA platform processes the XML file and forwards it to the recipient. The recipient’s response is then returned and reflected as an updated status in your SAP eDocument Cockpit.
Process scenario for e-Reporting
eReporting has a similar Y-Model as e-Invoicing.
Note: This flow only applies for SAP S/4HANA.
- Documents relevant for e-Reporting (e.g. B2B international transactions and B2C domestic transactions) are posted in SAP throughout the reporting period. In the background, these documents automatically generate a corresponding eReporting SAP eDocument in the SAP eDocument Cockpit Monitor.
- Based on your reporting frequency (depending on your company’s VAT scheme), an eReporting entry will automatically appear in a dedicated SAP Fiori app. Within this eReporting entry, you can select the relevant eReporting documents from the SAP eDocument Cockpit for the respective reporting period and summarize them in an eReporting list in the legally required format.
- From the same SAP Fiori application, you can submit the eReporting document to the French DGFiP tax authorities.
- After validation by the French DGFiP tax authorities, the report status will flow back into the SAP Fiori app, where it can be reviewed by the users.
Digital format used (XML format)
France has chosen to accept different XML formats for electronic invoicing. The possible options all comply with the European standard for electronic invoicing (EN16931), namely:
- Factur-X
- UBL 2.0 (Universal Business Language)
- CII (Cross Industry invoice)
SAP Solution
To be able to work with electronic invoicing and electronic reporting, SAP provides the document and reporting compliance solution. This SAP solution can be integrated into the SAP ECC and SAP S/HANA system. The solution is compliant with the country-specific legal requirements of the available solutions worldwide, such as Italy, Spain, Türkiye, Mexico, France and many more. All the electronic documents of the different countries can be found and managed in the eDocument Cockpit. From this point, you can access the documents, view the XML and/or PDF file and send it to or receive it from the third party or government. Depending on the country, other actions are available. For France, the electronic invoices and electronic reports will be accessible in the eDocument Cockpit where further steps can be undertaken. This means that the solution can provide an end-to-end solution which automatically generates the required XML file based on the information from the created documents in SD or FI.
After sending the XML, it passes through document and reporting compliance cloud edition on to the tax authority platform of the government. Here the XML will be signed.
In France, SAP will connect to the PPF directly. This means that no connection is needed with a third party.
Why should a company comply with the electronic regulations?
When a company does not comply with the electronic regulations, it receives fines. The fine runs from 15 Euros per invoice to an annual maximum between 15.000 to 45.000 for invoices. The fines for reporting are between 250 and 750 Euros per transmission to an annual maximum between 15.000 to 45.000 Euros for transmissions. Therefore it is important to make sure to comply with the French electronic regulations.
Watch our Demo session
Demo session
End-to-End Demo for France 2026 E-Invoicing: watch now!
France is gearing up for major B2B e-invoicing and e-reporting changes starting September 2026, are you ready? In this demo, PIKON translates the French requirements into a clear, practical SAP perspective, based on real-life SAP compliance project experience. You’ll see how SAP DRC and the eDocument Cockpit support the full technical flow, from invoice creation to submission, validation, and monitoring. We’ll also share PIKON’s proven approach to readiness, process design, and compliance integration. Watch now and receive the live system demo for free.
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Guide to E-Invoicing requirements within the EU
This E-Invoicing in Europe guide provides a clear overview of upcoming regulatory changes across the 27 countries in the EU with SAP DRC, including key mandates and what they mean for your organisation. It helps you align finance, tax and IT discussions and prepare for the next wave of EU E-Invoicing requirements.
How PIKON can help you
With our Competence Center for Legal Requirements, we are a strategic partner who ensures that your SAP system and business processes meet different country-specific legal requirements all over the world in the long run. We have a team of experts that combine SAP expertise and in-depth knowledge of the end-to-end legal process and technical requirements of the Spanish and many other eInvoicing and eAccounting regulations. We have gathered this experience through our many SAP Document & Reporting Compliance and local implementation projects all around the world. Some examples are SDI in Italy, SII in Spain, CFDI and Complemento de Pago in Mexico, RTIR and EKAER in Hungary, XRechnung in Germany, the different legal requirements in Turkey, etc. We have also developed our own compliance SAP Add-Ons e.g. MTD VAT in the UK and the VAT Whitelist in Poland. Furthermore, we always keep an eye on new and changing legal requirements and inform our customers when action is needed. This ensures that your company doesn’t need to follow up on all the legal requirements yourselves, and you can concentrate on your daily business.
